At Least Two Dead In Drone Strikes In Libya

At least two people were killed and several others wounded on Sunday in air strikes carried out by the Libyan government on the outskirts of Zawiya (west) as part of an operation launched, officially, against traffickers' positions, according to local media and an elected official from the town.

"Drone air strikes targeted sites in the port of al-Maya near Zawiya for the second consecutive day," Libya's al-Ahrar station claimed on Sunday evening, publishing a video of a burning boat in the dock surrounded by a dense column of black smoke.

"My nephew Mohamad Bouzrebah was hit in the raid on al-Maya," MP Ali Bouzrebah, who was elected in the town of Zawiya, 45 kilometres west of Tripoli, grieved in a statement while confirming the deaths of two other individuals.

Al-Maya's harbour is around ten kilometres from Zawiya, which is home to a significant oil refinery.

On Sunday evening, videos of the strike, the second in two days, surfaced on social media, along with photographs of those slain and the MP's nephew, who was injured in hospital.

On Friday, the MP claimed that a drone had crashed into his home, but no one was hurt.

The UN-recognised Tripoli-based government of national unity's Ministry of Defence stated on Thursday that it had conducted "precise and targeted air strikes against the hideouts of fuel, drug, and human trafficking gangs in the western coastal region."

The Tripoli administration has not reported the status of the strikes, their targets, or the results since declaring the commencement of this operation, which has proceeded without interruption since.

Since Muammar Gaddafi's rule fell in 2011, oil-rich Libya has been thrown into disarray, with divides fueled by the growth of armed factions with shifting allegiances.

For the last year, two administrations have vied for power in Libya: one in Tripoli (west), led by Abdelhamid Dbeibah and recognized by the UN, and another in the east, supported by the strong Marshal Khalifa Haftar and the parliament in Tobruk.